Feb 5, 2008

Take it back? What is this, the playground?

A week after blasting the Marines as "unwelcome intruders" in Berkeley, two City Council members want the city to back off the declaration that ignited the wrath of the nation's right wing and inspired a Republican senator to try to sever Berkeley's federal funding. Council members Betty Olds and Laurie Capitelli on Monday proposed that Berkeley rescind its letter to the U.S. Marine Corps that stated that the downtown Berkeley recruiting center "is not welcome in our city," and publicly declare that Berkeley is against the war but supports the troops.

I've never been one to whitewash as a liar everyone who says they're "against the war but for the troops." I can even site two examples of people who I believe when they say that: deuddersun and - strangely enough - ME (although in my case it was our interventions in Somalia and Haiti... was never too fond of getting involved in Bosnia either, but I digress).

But in this case, these people showed their true colors as anti-military nutters. Betty Olds* - who I think was the only council member to originally vote against the action, obviously has her reasons for wanting to rein this thing back in:

"People are so mad about this. They have relatives in the service, and now they think they're not welcome in Berkeley," she said. "My twin brother was a Marine in World War II. He'd be turning in his grave if he saw this."

But you can always count on the troll to pop out from under the bridge at just the right moment.

"I hope they're not acting out of intimidation," said Code Pink spokeswoman Medea Benjamin. "Berkeley is a city of peace, and a recruiting station does not fit Berkeley's values."

And in that, I have to agree. We know what Berkeley values are, and it wouldn't matter if there was a war on or not. Those douche-nozzles would still act the same way. So I say we pay Ms. Olds airfare, set her up with a nice place to stay in San Diego, and then help Sen. DeMint get his legislation passed. Wouldn't it be delicious if the only federally funded agency in Berkeley at the end of all this was the Officer Selection Office?

They were right about one thing during the initial council session, though: KARMA'S A BITCH. The Marine Corps related insanity starts at around 1:13:00 in the associated video at the link (the general purpose insanity starts at 0:00:01) and continues for the next half hour, reaching it's apex at 1:30:00 with the comments of a councilman who proudly claims to be an EX-Marine, with all that entails. You want to see MASSIVE overreach? This is supposed to be a CITY council meeting. They spend virtually the whole time talking international policy. WTF?------------*Betty Olds, to whom I was initially going to give the benefit of the doubt, now falls in the category of "those who can suck my ass." In the video, at 1:34:30 she admits to finding psychiatrists who would say her kids were nuts so they wouldn't get drafted for Vietnam, and then laments how "the Marines ought to have better sense than to come here," before throwing in the obligatory tree-hug by taking a shot at the Hummer the OSO drives around in. You're right, you old skag, your brother IS turning in his grave.